The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-08-25
"WE ARE WITNESSES
DISCOURSE BY REV. DR.. TALMAGE
AT THE HAMPTONS.

The World VIII Be Brought to God Not
Through Argument, but Through Tes-
timony-The Christians weapon in the
Conflict Is Faith, Not Logic.
TIE HAMPToNs, Aug. 21.-"The Facts
Proved" is the subject Of discourse by
the Rev. T, De Witt Talmage, today.
His text is from Acts XIV, 8: "We are
witnesses. Following is his sermon i'll
full:
In the days Of George Stephenson, the
perfector of tie locomotive engine, the
scientists proved conclusively that rail
way train could never be driven by
steam power successfully and without
peril, bjft the rushing express trains
from Liverpool 10 Edinburgh, and from
Edinburgh 10 London, have made all the
nation Witnesses Il the splendid achieve
rienj. RiacliiIi5t5 and navigators proved
conciusiyeiy that . steamer coulQ never
cross the Atlantic oseaR, but no sooner had
! they successfully proved the ln4possibjlity
| OF such an undertaking than the work
was done, and the passengers on the Gu
nard, and the lnnlai, ana the National.
and the White Star lines are witnesses.
There went lIp a guifaw Of wise laughter
at Professor Morse's proposition to make
the lightning Of heaven his errand boy,
| and it was proved concmsively that the
| thing could never be done; but now all
| the news Of the wide world, by Ass0ci-
ated Press put into your hands every
morning and night, has made ell nations
witnesses.
! Soin the time OF Christ it was proved
conciQslycly that it was impossible for
him to rise fron. the dead. 1t was shown
! logically that when a man was dead, he
was dead, and the heart and the liver and
! the lungs having ceased TO perform their
offices. the limbs would be rigid beyond
ali power of friction or arGusal. They
showed it TO be an absolute absuFllity That
the dead Christ should ever get up alive;
| but no sooner had they proved this than
the dead Christ arose, and the disciples
beheld him, heard his voice, and talked
with him, and they took the witness
stand to prove that to be true which the
wiseacres of the day had proved to be i'm
possible; the record of the experiment
and of the testimony is in the text: Him
hath God raised from the dead, whereof
we are witnesses. "
Now let me play the slcptic for a mo-
ment. ''There is no God" says the
skeptic, 'sfor have never seen him with
my physical eyesight. Your Bible is a
pack OF contradictions. There never was
a miracle. La-arlls was not raised from
the dead, and tile water was never turned
into wine. A0lr religion is an inposi-
ton on the creaulity of the ages" There
is an aged man moving in that pew as
though he would Ike to respond, Here
are hundreds of people with faces a little
flushed at these announcements, and all
through this house there is Il suppressed
feeling which would like to speak out in
behalf of the truth of our glorious Chris
tianity, as III the days Of the text, crying
out: ''We are Witnessesl'
The fact is that if this world IS ever
brought to God it will net be through ar
gumont, but through testimony, Eoa
might cover the whole earth with apollo
gie5 for Christianity and learned treatisc5
in defense of religion-you would not
convert q soul. Lectures on the harmony
between science and religion are beauti-
ful mental discipline, but have never
saved a soul and never will save d soul.
3'ut man Of the world and Z man of the
church AGAINST each other and tie man Of
the world viii In ell probability get tie
triumph. There are a thousand things IN
our religion that seem Illogical to the
world, and always viii seem illogical.
Our weapon in this conflict is faith,
not logic; faith, not metaphysics; faith,
not profundity; faith, not scholastic ez-
ploration. But then, in order to have
fdth, we must have testimony, and if
five hundred men. or one Thousand men,
or five hundred thousand men, CT five
million men get up and tell me that they
have felt the religion Of Jesus Christ a joy,
a comfort. help, an inspiration, / ann
bound as a fair minded man to accept
their testimony. want just now to put
before you three propositions, the truth
OF which think this audience will attest
with overwhelming Jmanimlty.
The first proposition Is. No arc wit
nesses that the religion Of Christ is able
TO convert soul.
The Gospel may have had hard time
, to conquer us, we May have fought il
back, but we Were vanquished. You
say conversion is only al imaginary
thing. We know better. owe are wit
nesses. There never was So tc-rHat {
change in our heart and life on any other
subject as on this. People laughed Al
the missionaries IL Madagascar because
they preached ten years WITHOUT one con
vert: but there are 81, 600 converts il
Madagascar today. People laughed a
DR.. Juds0n. the Baptist missionary, be
cause he kept on preaching in Burma!
five years without q single convert: bu
there are 10000 Baptists iii Burmah to
day. People laughed at Dr.. Morrison, il
China, for preaching there seven year
without a single conversion; but there are
1900 Christians il China today. Peo
pie laughed at the missionaries Cor preach
ing at Tahiti for fifteen wears without
single conversion, and at the Inissi0narie
for preaching in Bengal for seventeen
years without a single conversion; Yet il
all those lands there are muititudes o
Christians to!ay,
But why go 50 far to find evidences o
the Gosael 5 power to save a soul? "W
are witnesses. We were SO proud tina
no man could have humbIcd us; we wer
SO hard that 10 earthly power could hav
!, melted Us; angels of God were all aroun,
: about us; they could not overcome Us
but ono day, perhaps at a Methods
. anxious scat, or at a Presbyterian cathe
!, chetical lecture, or at burial or O
. horseback, power seized us, and mad
US get down. and made US tremble, an
4 made us kneel, and made us cry fc
mercy, and we tried to wrench ourselve
away from the grasp, but we could no
1t fang US fiat, and when we arose W
were as much changed as Gourgis, th
heatlien, who went into 4 prayer NEE
; ing with a Gagger and gun to distur
the meeting and destroy it, bat the ne2
dav was found crying: "Ohi my gres
sins! Oh! my great Saviour and IL
eleven years preached the Gospel {
! Christ To his fellow mOlIntainenrS. Il